Seasonal migrants throng cities for work
by Limana Solaiman Mridha
A group of men, each with his own tools of the trade _ hoes and metal pans _ sit on a pavement early every morning near the under-construction flyover at Moghbazar in the capital. They wait for someone to pick them for a days work.
I finished planting rice and then came to Dhaka city to find work. If I were home right now, my income would be nil, but here I have the opportunity to earn four to five hundred taka every day. I have a big family, a total of six dependants and I am the only earning member, so I must earn daily in order to feed and clothe my family. I will have to return during the harvest season as there will be a lot to do then, said Abdus Salam from Patuakhali. He was one of the men waiting to sell their labour at Moghbazar one day last week.
Hundreds of day-labourers wait at different parts of the city every morning, usually from 7am to 10:30am, waiting eagerly for work. A large number of these men are farm workers who come to the city looking for temporary work during lean seasons, or in-between harvests. They do not have any sort of vocational training and, therefore, are hired for various labourious jobs, especially in the construction sector. Some also pull rickshaws or do other odd jobs, like loading and unloading trucks. A large portion of these seasonal migrants also consist of women, who return to their villages during the plantation and harvest seasons. They live in temporary shelters in nearby slums of the area where they find work.
Men are paid more than we are, even though we work equally hard. But it is possible to earn three to four hundred taka almost every day if we work constantly. We have to work till 5pm, after that, if more work is pending, they have to hire us for the next day. It gives us the opportunity to earn cash, which we can contribute towards our household expenses. If we were in our village at the moment, we would be earning nothing, said Hajera Begum, who works in the Azimpur area of the capital.
Kajol, who is also located at Azimpur, said: I started coming here many years ago during lean seasons and would go back during harvesting. But the city offers many earning prospects, and we go with the flow. I came here along with my daughter and son-in-law. We are really poor and landless. I used to work in other peoples fields and get paid with crops, not cash. But here, we all earn money and can get by better than if we were at our village.
Temporary migration is a necessary livelihood strategy for many extreme poor households in villages of Bangladesh. Such people, with irregular and unstable employment opportunities, strive for daily food security and crisis or debt management that prompts short-term migration to urban or other rural areas.
According to labour activist Khandekar Abdus Salam, flood, drought, crop loss, river erosion, soil salinity, natural disasters, modernisation in farming and debt are common factors for migration to urban areas.
Staying unemployed are not an option for these people from extreme poor households. Due to automation in the agricultural sector, more and more farm workers are losing employment opportunities. And for sustaining their livelihoods, they are moving to the major urban areas to work as day labourers, said Salam, who is a trainer at the Bangladesh Institue of Labour Studies (BILS).
A host of determinants guide the decision to migrate. Usually, families with high dependency rates, with at least one adult member able to look after the family during the migration, produce more seasonal migrants. Households that take loans frequently to cope with reduced income levels due to lack of work during lean periods also have a tendency to migrate more in order to avoid debt collectors.
Moreover, families living on the mainland are less likely to go for temporary migration than those living on chars (shoals). Nearby towns with better opportunities appeal more to such migrants, rather than bigger cities, as income prospects are comparatively greater there.
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, assistant executive director of BILS, said: There is a scheme by Krishi Bank which is geared towards temporary migrants who want to return home. It is called Ghore Fera. There are also NGOs working in districts such as Nilphamari and Rangpur that provide micro-credit to villagers during lean periods, so that they do not have to migrate to earn a living.
However, Alamin Islam, a worker from Rangpur, maintains that the city has better opportunities.
There are NGOs working in our area, but we cannot all avail these facilities. I have four people depending on me and this is just the easier option. I am healthy and can work every day to provide for my family. I will return home shortly, when it is time to harvest, Islam told this correspondent.
Shafiqul Haider Chowdhury, an official at the Ministry of Social Welfare, said many of these migrants are victims of natures adversity and the government had plans to rehabilitate them.
Climate change and natural disasters are key driving factors of internal migration. We are planning a project, titled Urban Management of Internal Migration Due to Climate Change in collaboration with German Development Cooperation, to provide support in Khulna and Rajshahi divisions. The project will work to rehabilitate the most affected villagers. The support provided will include housing development, health facilities and vocational training, Chowdhury said.
It seems that although the government and non-government organisations are working side by side to come to the aid of the hapless, hardworking individuals, there is room for improvement to provide support through schemes and rehabilitation programmes so that the lure of jobs and easy cash presented by the city would appeal less to seasonal migrants.
Photo credits: Zaki Ameen, Parveen Ahmed
